SPEECH BY ANC PRESIDENT JACOB ZUMA AT THE SOLIDARITY TRADE UNION CONGRESS, GOOD NEWS CONVENTION CENTRE, MULDERSDRIFT, MARCH 26 2009

The President of Solidarity, Mr Steve Scott,
The General Secretary of Solidarity,
Mr Flip Buys,
Members of the Solidarity's National Council,
Members of Solidarity Union,
Distinguished guests,

Thank you for inviting me once again to the National Congress of the
Solidarity Trade Union.

I appreciate your openness to dialogue even with people you do not necessarily agree with in full on policy issues. This augurs well for the culture of open dialogue and engagement that we are trying to build in our country.

Since 1994, we have together as South Africans been working to build a united and democratic country and to forge a common nationhood. We have done well as a nation given how far we have come. We get along well as South Africans, regardless of what anyone outside the country may think given the media portrayals of our country.

At a social level there have been moments which have united us and proved that we are indeed one people. We experienced glimpses of such moments when South Africa won the Rugby World Cup and the African Nations Cup. It is such small things that we must build upon as we forge our common nationhood.

We also share love for one of the greatest icons in the world, the founding father of a free and democratic South African, Nelson Mandela.  No matter how much we may disagree as South Africans on issues, we all agree that we love Nelson Mandela. He remains a great unifying factor and we are blessed to have him as our compatriot.

The past fifteen years have seen some major advances and progress being made at an economic level.

We have already laid a firm foundation for socio-economic and political development. Our role after the elections will be to further accelerate the pace of change and ensure that we improve service delivery and to fight unemployment, poverty and inequality.

We have a good idea of the type of administration we want to build.  We are creating a caring society. A society in which public servants treat the public as priority customers, and serve them with respect, dignity and efficiency.

We want caring nurses, teachers, social workers, administration clerks and public service managers. We want a caring police service when they deal with victims of crime, but not when they tackle criminals of course!

South Africa must be a country at work for a better life. Clock-watching must be a thing of the past if we are to achieve the economic development goals we envisage.

We also want to continue to build a truly united and non-racial society. South Africa belongs to all of us, black and white. We have to work together to make this country work.

Every South African is important, regardless of colour, race or creed.

South Africa also belongs to our compatriots who live abroad. There is a tendency to view all South African expatriates as disgruntled people who left the country because they hated the dawn of freedom and democracy.

That small element may exist, but not all emigrants are out of the country for such reasons. Scores of other South Africans are abroad in search of greener pastures, for example nurses, social workers and teachers.

There are also young professionals working in sectors that are in demand worldwide, such as information and communications technology.

We know that they remain very loyal to the country and view the opportunities that have come their way as being part of the fruits of liberation and democracy.

As the ANC, we have no intention of restricting the freedom of movement of South Africans, but obviously do not want to encourage the skills flight either. Therefore, we must do more to make our country attractive to skilled individuals.

The ANC election Manifesto takes care of all these imperatives.

Ladies and gentlemen, South Africa remains an unequal society, and we are still trying to close the gaps that exist between the rich and poor. We will continue to implement certain policies that will help us to close this gap.

One of these is Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE).

We remain committed to this policy. Our view is that no economy can succeed in the long run if the majority of its citizens are mere workers only, and are not owners and managers of the means of production.

For the sake of growing our economy in a sustainable manner, we must continue our economic transformation policies. However, we want our policies to benefit more people.

We will target, especially the workers, youth, women and people with disabilities. Policies will in addition, actively promote skills development and equity in the workplace.

We all know that opportunities were deliberately denied to fellow South Africans during apartheid. As part of nation building and reconciliation, we embarked on the Affirmative Action policy to redress this imbalance and heal the wounds of the past.

We have discussed this matter before and I know that you are not totally opposed to Affirmative Action. You have views on implementation, which we will need to engage on further.

The policy is not meant to harm any group, or to adversely affect anyone.

Its main objective is that of redress. Our approach is also that the application of Affirmative Action should not affect the country's economy.

It should be flexible enough to enable us to tackle the scarcity of certain skills in our economy, while simultaneously developing the skills of all South Africans.

Where necessary, and where the capacity doesn't exist locally, we should look at importing scarce skills, and using retired compatriots where needed.

As workers, your concern is job security and the expansion of the economy to create job opportunities. At the core of our economic programme is to grow the economy and create more jobs at a faster rate.

We approach this task mindful of the impact that our economy is likely to feel as a consequence of the global economic crisis.

We know that growth is likely to slow down and this, in turn, will make the creation of new jobs even harder.

We know too that lower rates of growth will reduce government revenue, and therefore constrain the actions of government to a certain extent.

Our government is working with labour and business to find solutions to assist us to deal with the challenges ahead.

The agreement between business, labour and government in responding to the crisis provided five priorities:

a) Protecting the poor.
b) Accelerating investment spending.
c) Minimising job losses.
d) Taking steps to improve long-term competitiveness.
e) Ensuring that the debt burden does not rise too much.

We trust that the parties will keep the momentum and continue interacting, in order to minimise the negative impact and save jobs.

We met with big business recently and sent a strong message that innovative ways must be found of cutting costs without making our people jobless.

We will need to implement an industrial policy that provides support to key sectors and strengthen manufacturing, mining and other important sectors that may be affected by the economic meltdown.

Part of government's investment in the economy, which will create jobs, is the massive expansion of public works programmes. This will be linked to the infrastructure programme and meeting social needs such as school renovations and expanding early childhood development centres, which will include employing caregivers and trainers.

The HIV and AIDS home-based care programme is another expanded public works programme that will provide much needed support in communities, while providing jobs for caregivers.

To achieve the economic growth we envisage, we have to invest in education, and we want to do that in a focused way. We will improve access to quality education and training.

We welcome the role of trade unions in skills development and believe that empowered workers are also motivated to produce more in their workplaces. Solidarity is one of the unions that take skills development very seriously.

Our government has been effective in the fight against poverty. More than 12 million people receive social grants and have access to basic services.

You made us aware last year, of what you call "new poverty", in the form of white communities that are living in poverty, an example being Bethlehem in Pretoria North. Government will keep to its undertaking of fighting poverty no matter who it affects in our country.

That is why government immediately extended social grants registration services to the Bethlehem community, while the Tshwane municipality was directed to do all in its power to contribute to the alleviation of hardships in that community. That is our commitment, to build a better life for all South Africans.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are aware of the outcry on the prevalence of crime and its negative impact on human rights in the country. Crime permeates every detail of life, from individual personal security, business, diplomatic relations, legislation, governance to the criminal justice system.

Apart from the tangible damage that it causes, crime also has long-term effects on the moral fibre of society, impacting even more negatively on its direct and indirect victims.

Crime cuts across all socio-economic strata and race and jeopardizes the enjoyment of the universal benefits of the Bill of Rights.

We will take the fight to another level by establishing a new modernised, efficient and transformed criminal justice system to develop the capacity for fighting and reducing crime in real terms.

Government will review the functioning of the police, the judiciary and the correctional services to achieve integration and coordination.

We will actively combat serious and violent crime by being tougher on criminals and organised crime syndicates. In this respect, we will increase the capacity of the SAPS through recruitment, rigorous training and better remuneration.

We will improve the capacity of especially the Detective Services, forensics, prosecution, judicial services and crime intelligence.

While saying our police must act mercilessly against criminals, we are not saying people's rights must be violated. Police must use force and authority within the bounds of the law. We cannot become a cowboy State where we shoot first and ask questions later, no matter how frustrated we are about crime.

Ladies and gentlemen, the ANC always works through partnerships and consultation. We will deepen partnerships even further to achieve national goals in the next  administration.

It is through working in partnership that we have provided support to the poorest and most vulnerable in society, and have worked to ensure that all South Africans have access to basic services.

It is through partnership that we have managed to achieve sustained economic growth since 1994. It is through partnership that we will be able to work to survive the current economic crisis.

That is why we say working together we can do more, to bring about a better life for all our people.

I thank you.

Issued by the African National Congress, March 26 2009

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